Ink's Fondest Luxury

Ah, Poetry, it seems to me

Must be ink’s fondest luxury

Scattered fragments of a heart

Picture-frames of nature’s art

Agony and ecstasy

Bleeding into poetry

Dances of despair, desire

Rushing reels of ice and fire

Love and longing synchronize

Hope and heartache fill its skies

Where ink’s fondest luxury

Fills night-sighs with poetry

Centuries of testament

Spill in laughter and lament

Battle-ground of pain and peace

Luxury of ink-release

Mantra of a memory

Fondly framed in poetry

© Janet Martin

 The log I put on the fire at midnight didn't burn very well. Due to our COLD temps the stove-pipes got too cold creating a downdraught and at 3:00 a.m. we were woken to shrieking smoke alarms and a house plugged with smoke.kinda terrifying! I chucked the smoking log out into a snow-drift.  It took a few hours to figure out how to thaw windows open, clear smoke, reverse the draft. and get a fire burning again.online article a tremendous help (hairdryer up the chimney flue)

Now, coffee black and...poetry:) 

Matt is in school today but the buses to the elementary schools are not running so Victoria can make up for the sleep she missed during the night.

Collaboration of Contrast...edited rendition

Truth does not change

Season follows season

Night fills the hollow where dawn rends its blue

I cannot rearrange

Love’s restless reason

Longing still follows the having of you

The more that I love you

The deeper I hunger

The deeper I hunger the fuller I love

Perplexing paradox

Pushing me onward

Searching for something I know nothing of

Out on the skyline

Poplar and pine shiver

Here in the blackness of white winter night

Symmetrical contrasts

Collaborate, quiver

Tender-sweet torment and bitter delight

© Janet Martin

Wasted Wishing...

Don’t leave me yet, though night-ness shades the street

Where a short while ago dawn teased to gray

Hope’s un-chanced moments of faith without feet

Now we have worn them; its dance bitter-sweet

...too much I cherish of this little day

Why are you eager to vanish away?

Don’t leave me lonely; this fire is for two

Time enough darling, to sip midnight's sky

Dancing with memories tomorrow will do

I am not ready to relinquish you

Exchanging touch for an echo or sigh

Trading the gild of your grin for good-bye

Don’t leave me winter-cold here at the door

Vexing my wishes with your fading light

Time enough darling, for past’s never-more

‘After’ is longer, it seems, than ‘before’

And we grow older with each farewell flight

Kiss me, but oh, do not kiss me goodnight

© Janet Martin~

This was one of those days I simply don’t want to end…Yes, because we were all home with nowhere to go. Storm-stayed Luxury.

( ...and yes, Green Gables and Gilbert and Anne find their way to our house every winter:)

Storm-song

 We kicked some niches into the ice-snow-covered shrubs...it didn't take long for the birdies to find them!

Galvanized talons, raw, reckless unleash

Passion of snowflake to shiv’ring shrub-niche

Burrow, wee birdie, into cedar-tress

Pray, Mother Nature for spring-sweet caress

Down, from deep dregs of ice-crypts in the sky

Frenzy of flurry scatters far and wide

We, meek earth creature-lings bear its bleak blast

Knowing eventually it will be past

But the conductor of this stalwart choir

Waves his baton and shouts ‘higher, higher’

Strike silver timbrel and rouse bully-bow

Ring out the anthems of winter and snow

Over the landscape its melody streaks

Frosting eye-lashes lashes and nipping our cheeks

Where is the music of warm wave and sun?

Ah, it must wait until this song is done

© Janet Martin

Faces are frosted in mere minutes!

Morning Does Not Lose Its Way...

Morning does not lose its way

Though tardy, it seeps through gray

Lighting coppice, crag and firth

Sallow orb o’er white-washed earth

Windswept, hinterland and dell

Brace against steel tentacle

Nook and hollow, alley, hill

Nothing can escape its chill

Somewhere softer canticle

Teases turquoise-bathed pebble

Purple pool of morning mist

Veils lush vineyards warm, sun-kissed

Here we brace against the growls

Flung from Old Man Winter’s jowls

Here, at hearth we linger long

Slipper-clad and coffee-strong

Morning wends from heaven-tress

Vexing night’s dark wilderness

Through its howling, headstrong wrath

Morning melts a little path

© Janet Martin

Crazy-cold and stormy...all schools in a wide area are closed!

Snow Days...

There’s somethin’ ‘bout snow-days…

How they keen the heart-blaze

Love-laughter warming

Where flame-dance is null

Afternoon chatter

Wrapped in cozy sweaters

And soon to be memories

Of fresh-framed Thankful

There’s somethin’ ‘bout snow-days

And scrabble-word free-ways

Carving out niches

Of sun-sweet July

Good books, steam swirling

Above the unfurling

Of soon to be memories

Etched over good-bye

There’s somethin’ ‘bout snow-days

And blueberry bundt-cakes

Filling the kitchen

With Green Gable charm

Ah, there’s somethin’ ‘bout snow-days

Molding their memories

…not with ice-anguish

But love spicy-warm

© Janet Martin

It's All About the Cross ABC's

Love’s

Aching

Braving

Craving, coping

Dying,

Endless

Faith,

Grief,

Hoping

Inspiration.

Joy,

Keen

Loss

Oh, it’s all about The Cross

Love’s

Misery

Nobility,

Obligation

Passion

Quickening

Relinquishing,

Sacrifice,

Temptation

Unity

Victory

Worship,

X-altation

Yearning,

Zealous

And beyond all human explanation

This wayfaring and warring flight

Is not a dance of dross

For as we weep and pray and fight

It’s all about the cross

© Janet Martin

Skiing gives a person a lot of time to think...life and love can be heavy and grueling at times; then I looked up through the blowing snow and gathering dusk to where God planted His promise BAM! in front of me.literally...I stopped short and laughed out loud!

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23


Phil 2:8 (NIV) And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!

Beggar's Benediction

How is it?

One click of a key

Steals your coy, half-grin

From me

Cerulean

Of summer-sky

Swept

To a bleak

And gray

Good-bye

How is it?

Coveting a page

From yesterday’s

Elusive stage

Can prompt

Quick poetry

Of tears

Or

Season-smiles

For yester-years

How is it?

One click of a key

Evokes

Familiar misery

‘Mornin’ darlin’’

And ‘farewell’

Falling prey

To the

Same

Knell?

How is it?

That the paradise

Of laughter

In a lover’s eyes

Dissolves

In oceans

Instantly

With one half-breath

Click of

A key?

© Janet Martin